Tag

job search strategies

The 10 Critical Actions to Take Online When Searching for a Job

By Social Media
I always know at least three people looking for a new or different job. Sometimes it’s a shock to the person looking. They can barely get their bearings, never having expected to be in the position of “job seeker.” I’m keeping this list simple and manageable so anyone can dive in and take immediate advantage of the advice that follows:

10 Critical Actions to Take When Searching for a Job

  1. Google yourself. In fact, set up a Google alert so you know if anything new bearing your name is published. Can you find yourself? Do you like what you’re seeing?  Is it what you want a potential employer to find?
  2. Buy the URL of your name. I own www.marijeanjaggers.com — if your name isn’t half as unusual as mine, you may need to use your middle name as well.
  3. Put your resume on your website. What website? See number 2. (Domain name and registration will run you about $120 total for a year. Spend the money.)
  4. Blog a little. It’s important to position yourself for the role you want to assume. Write about your interests, your experience and what you enjoy about your chosen field. Feel free to be personal and write about your collection of spoons or your passion for skeet shooting. It lets the universe know a little something about you.
  5. Clean up your Facebook profile. If you’ve been a cussing, beer drinking maniac in your social network, knock it off and make sure you manage the privacy settings so no one can see your misspent youth.
  6. Get your LinkedIn profile ship shape. Here’s advice on how to do that.
  7. Start connecting online to everyone you know; DON’T publish that you’re looking for work in a public place; DO engage with others and individually share your interest in pursuing new opportunities.
  8. Create a Twitter account (please create a profile with a photo of you) and use it to begin following the businesses you’re interested in working for and others in your community that may be instrumental in helping you in your search.
  9. If the place you want to work has a Facebook page — LIKE it.
  10. If the companies you’re interested in have blogs, start reading them and leaving comments. Use your online footprint to demonstrate who you are and let your future employers get to know you a bit online.

Finding a Job: Social Networks are Key

By Uncategorized

My sister, Marçia Heroux Pounds,  is a journalist and the author of a new book you should read; I Found a Job! Job Search Strategies for America’s Recovery.

Marcia Heroux Pounds

You should buy it, read it, and buy copies for everyone you know looking for a job (or a new, improved job).

The book is I Found a Job! and you can get it from Barnes and Noble (this is especially important for all of you boycotting Amazon right now.)

I Found a Job

A person’s social network plays a big role in how many of the individuals interviewed for this book found new careers and opportunities. As a big cheerleader for social networking, I am thrilled to promote this book as a collection of inspiring stories of people seeking and finding gratifying work.

This book or its development may be familiar to many of you; I used my own social network to help my sister connect to many of the people interviewed for this project and some of those people appear in the book. (If you’re a reader of mine, and you buy I Found a Job! you may see some familiar names!)

Buy the book from Barnes and Noble.